Fighting back – a golden opportunity to take on the Big Four in tax services

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Bakers City head Alex Chadwick argues that law firms are increasingly primed to take core tax work off Big Four rivals

As the international tax framework becomes subject to increased scrutiny and legal change, the demand for strategic global advice has never been stronger. In the UK, law firms have traditionally played second fiddle to the Big Four accountants when advising on tax. Today, however, law firms with the right infrastructure are incredibly well positioned to take more of a leading role in the tax affairs of their clients. This is down to a combination of greater regulation of audit services, tougher restrictions on the provision by accounting firms of non-audit services, such as tax, valuation and legal services and deregulation of the legal profession.

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Comment: How KWM became Rogers & Wells II but with less staying power

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A fêted global giant acquires a punchy mid-tier player to provide coverage in a key global region. Hopes are high. Yet just a few years later the combined firm is plagued by culture clashes, an identity crisis and damaging departures. Buyer’s remorse sets in and the ‘acquired’ firm longs for freedom or even just the good old days.

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Global 100: Word from the world

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‘The UK has embraced technology and alternative legal services faster than the US with some innovative and imaginative thinking.’

Kim Koopersmith, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

From downturn fears to investing for the future, law firm leaders give their perspective on the challenges facing elite global firms.

Big issue

‘How the global market evolves is the million-dollar question because we have got some key things lurking in the background and also in the foreground at the minute which would change things dramatically. There is very little organic growth, so you have this continuous battle for both clients and a share of the purse with clients.’
Bryan Hughes, chief executive, Eversheds

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KWM becomes Rogers & Wells II but with less staying power

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A fêted global giant acquires a punchy mid-tier player to provide coverage in a key global region. Hopes are high. Yet just a few years later the combined firm is plagued by culture clashes, an identity crisis and damaging departures. Buyer’s remorse sets in and the ‘acquired’ firm longs for freedom or even just the good old days.

As we report this month in our cover feature on King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), the painful reality is that SJ Berwin has become, for the global legal market, the modern equivalent of Rogers & Wells, the troubled US acquisition that halted Clifford Chance (CC)’s once unstoppable momentum.

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Comment: The Legal 500 perspective on EMEA – more ways than ever to skin a cat

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The shifting interests of international business are echoed in recent law firm moves across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and reflected in the recently published 2016 The Legal 500 EMEA, which added 15 countries to its coverage over the past two years to address growing interest in Africa, as well as the return of international work to jurisdictions such as Iran and Iraq.

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Guest post: Why poor cross-selling sends the wrong message to clients

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At the annual Legal Marketing Association conference in Austin, a vendor conducted a survey that asked attendees what their ‘highest-priority growth initiatives’ were for this year. The leading answer was ‘improve cross-selling.’ I don’t doubt the accuracy of the survey results; they are the conventional wisdom in the flesh.

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Guest post: How to write like a lawyer

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Writing properly florid legal text takes years of practice. No-one enjoys reading it: not even the curmudgeon who has taken the trouble to write it. Construing a contract should not be a bodily pleasure but an act of ascetic sufferance, the reward for which comes in the hereafter*. Lawyers do this so you don’t have to.

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Guest post: A new report into HMRC’s investigation of tax fraud by the wealthy

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Overnight the Public Accounts Committee published a timely report on ‘Tackling Tax Fraud’. It’s fairly short and you can read it here.

Prospectively the greatest point of interest in the report is when it addresses the ‘perception that HMRC does not tackle tax fraud by the wealthy.’

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